1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to association benefit plans. More particularly, the present invention relates to the creation of a method and apparatus that enables similar individuals to join or become part of a group or association that shares burdens in a defined way, such as a member to member relationship, such that the impact is lessened as opposed to an individual undertaking the burden themselves or in groups that do not include similar people with similar characteristics.
2. Background Art
Grouping of individuals is common in many facets of our everyday life in order to achieve certain benefits or advantages. The grouping is done largely in the insurance industry. By pooling resources into a common fund, the group members are able to afford insurance coverage for such things as health, automobile and life. Without being able to pool resources, the individual would have to bear the entire costs for such things as health or automobile expenses.
With respect to health care, the average consumer would not be able to afford much more than the basic healthcare coverage if grouping of resources was not available. Cutting edge surgical or drug treatments would be difficult, if not, impossible for the average consumer based upon current medical rates being charged in the medical industry.
By placing all individuals into one group, insurance coverage and the benefits obtained there from are made more affordable. This coverage is primarily based, though, upon the overall health of the group. There will be individuals in the group that would just use the insurance for yearly checkups and there will other individuals, who will use the system much more extensively. It is the later group that has a greater effect on the premiums in the group. For those that do not use the insurance that frequently, being lumped with the more extensive users is a downside or disadvantage. On the other side, the individuals, who demand a greater share of the benefits, have the advantage of keeping their premiums lower than usual because of the individuals that demand little if any benefits from the program.
As can be seen, one of the benefits of insurance programs is the ability to pool resources so that the group as a whole is able to share in its benefits. However, a downside of this is that the group is generally composed of individuals that either makes frequent requests for the benefits or others that do not require benefits that often. Another disadvantage is that the beneficiaries, at any point, could lead unhealthy or at risk lifestyles such as high risk diets, low exercise, smoking, excessive alcohol intake and the use of illicit drugs. By engaging in such lifestyles, these individuals are at a greater likelihood to use the health insurance and its benefits. With more of these people using the benefits, the more likely the premiums and associated costs with providing these benefits for all the individuals increases.
An additional disadvantage of the present system for pooling resources is that the benefits are distributed to the individuals such that no other individual in the participating in the program has any real sense of what types of requests are being made and what types of service are being paid for by the insurance company. This disadvantage with such a system is that a beneficiary is less likely to be held accountable in a system where it is known how much everyone in the group has contributed and how each and every person in the group has requested in the form of benefits.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus that enables similar individuals with similar backgrounds to pool their resources such that the cost to each individual is reduced as opposed to groups with a plethora of individuals. Additionally, there is a need that such method and apparatus is available to all participating individuals such that there are able to access or view all the requests for benefits that are received as well as all contributions made by the participating members.